It's a movie. Like Shrek. I'll see it, and watch it that light.
No need to protect my tender little intellect from fiction.
Interesting websites.
I would have thought Ron Howard would be more inclined to take an interest in "Opie Deus" ...
Beyond knowing the movie is false...hey it's a movie...I won't see it because of National Treasure.
In that movie, I thought it was cool to see the treasure hunting, but when they reduced the Declaration of Independence to nothing more than a treasure map, I was repulsed.
In NT, I had hoped there would be a message that our real national treasure is the freedoms we have. Instead, it was just a guy finding a pot of gold, and subverting our laws to do it.
I suspect DC to be similar in that great treasures are relegated to providing clues and nothing more.
I suspect the reason it is getting so much press is because it casts a bad light on Catholicism. Casting that light doesn't affect me directly as I am Baptist. It does however cause a bad light to be reflected on Christianity as a whole.
It brings the idea that Christianity is nothing but a big cover up, to a generation that is getting increasingly more difficult to reach past their skepticism and cynicism.
Actually, I think the backlash will help the Church more than the movie will hurt it. Just go to the local bookstore and you will see a cottage industry of Christian books "Debunking the Da Vinci Code." Also, my church and others I am aware of are racking up big attendence increases at bible study classes by offering classes "Debunking the Da Vinci Code". I suspect this is true in many Churches across the country. I haven't seen an issue stimulate Church involvement like this for a long time. God works in mysterious ways.
bttt
Someone on another DVC thread made a claim that Gnostics were libertines. This claim is no more accurate than that one. There were at least a dozen different flavors of Gnosticism before and including the Cathars. They all varied widely on their doctrinal beliefs regarding carnality.
In any case, Brown's novel has nothing to do with Gnosticism. It is based on the mythology of the Priory of Sion. Brown made a couple of oblique references to Gnosticism in order to give his work intellectual credibility. Gnosticism's doctrinal errors are subtle. The Priory of Sion and Dan Brown are about as subtle as a kick in the groin.
Ahhh, so if he were married to MM, as Brown relates - and as has been written about for nearly 2000 years - how would that make Him an adulterer?
? (Why is the thought of Jesus having followed Jewish Law that males were to married and have issue - indeed, required of a rabbi - so repugnant? Is not marriage and children the prime directive of God the Father - the prime reason of mankind's existence?)
If Jesus fled persecution and had children by Mary, then the most essential doctrines of Christianity are false: the atoning death of Christ on the cross, the resurrection,
Hmmm - I always believed that what Jesus TAUGHT - or tried to get through = as THE WAY for us to conduct our lives, how to realize that the Kingdom of God is WITHIN us - that spark that needs to be fanned to LIGHT - is His message...which not many got back then and not many today. For one thing, he taught us we have the inherent right to connect with The Father through HIM - not through layers of other people. He taught that we need to do our work - not 'eat, drink and be merry" , "oops, sorry" and all be well for another week.
You bring up Gibson's "Passion" as an example of faithfully following the BIBLE - where on earth, for one example, did those nightmarish creatures with worms crawling out of their faces, skulking in the back ground come from? I can't find them in my Bible.
LOL - So, you read the book - but free, you'll see the movie, but not on opening and wait for a free pass - so that will sooth you conscience...well, guess I'll go out tonight and get stinko, but as long I don't pay for the booze, no fowl. And I'll take a trip with a friend in their gas-guzzling SUV, but, hey, it ain't mine - so no fowl....LOL (Not that I am anti-SUV. People who live in the country where there are rough roads, mountains, winters, muddy springs, etc - NEED 4-wheel drives. Also, with the seats required for children - if you don't limit your family to 2 children, you need a SUV or good sized van...sometimes I suspicion if the zero pop. folk aren't behind the war on SUV's? If it's really only fuel consumption, why aren't they screaming for more rail transport and getting some of the tens of thousands of 18-wheelers off the roads?
P.S. - (I hope you don't still believe that Columbus was Italian and discovered America?)
I liked this article:
How Dark the Con of Dan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1632068/posts
" As Amy Wellborn points out, "The Da Vinci Code" is fiction but the author makes assertions about history and presents them as widely accepted facts, introduced by such phrases as "historians say" and "scholars understand." "
Hmmmm. They must be related to "critics say" that I keep seeing in newspaper articles.
No one has a name. Maybe it's a conspiracy.